28-year-old Ocean Grove aid worker Leia Howes was in southern Leyte volunteering as an aid worker with the Australian Youth Ambassador for Development program.

Ms Howes says she was evacuated by the government to Tacloban on the eve of the typhoon.

"The night before, the winds started to pick up, and then at about five o'clock in the morning my partner and I woke up, and the wind was louder than the air conditioner, which is a strange feeling in the Philippines... it turned to hell from there."

'We decided to abandon our room and run, and that was probably about a 150 metre run in the middle of the typhoon away from the storm surge, which was racing towards our room."

Ms Howes says she and her partner Evan took shelter in the main building of a hotel.

Ms Howes says a group of motorcyclists staying in the hotel put on their helmets and made multiple trips outside to rescue people caught in collapsing buildings.

"They saved a lot of people, they were carrying babies out... they're heroes to every person who was in that hotel."

Ms Howes says the city was flattened after the storm.

"I can remember walking out the front and just looking at Tacloban going 'where has it gone?'"

'There were cars overturned, there was floodwater, buildings still standing but on an angle, no windows or doors, anything that wasn't built out of concrete was just on the ground."

"There was a small child walking with a baby Jesus and a Christmas tree under his arm, that one's stuck with me because it's not something you would expect to see."

Ms Howes says people went into panic mode and started collecting debris as a bartering system.

"You could call it looting, but I call it survival scavenging... you've got to understand that money didn't mean anything anymore."

"It's not like you could buy anything... what you could grab was going to be your bartering system from that day on."

Ms Howes says she left the hotel along with a group of hotel guests after a few days.

'We thought it was best to get out so we weren't a burden on resources as well."

"We couldn't help... I'm not a medical person, I don't know search and rescue, we were basically consuming resources they don't have."

Ms Howes says she and a group of hotel guests ended up walking a four hour trek from the hotel to the airport at four in the morning, hampered by debris, buildings and bodies.

"I don't think any words I can conjure up can describe it, it was hell."

Ms Howes says whilst walking through the city, she felt as if she were floating above her body watching on.

She says surreal images have stayed in her mind, such as two children playing with a basketball arcade game amidst flattened buildings, debris and dead bodies of people and animals.

"It was in one of the hardest hit places, just before the airport...there were two kids and they were playing basketball."

"Those sorts of moment where you did see just average things, you saw funny things, you sort of cherish those moments and they were really important. You would just stop and appreciate what you were experiencing at that moment."

Since arriving back in Australia, Ms Howes says her community survived the typhoon and she has vowed to return in 2014 to continue her work in southern Leyte.

"I want to return, and I will return, I just have to make sure that it's safe for me to return and I'm not a burden."

You can find information on aid organisations seeking donations for the Philippines here.